Maharashtra: Court discharges Chhagan Bhujbal in Maharashtra Sadan money laundering case

All the accused had filed discharge applications in the ED case after Maharashtra ACB had filed a closure report in the same case before the court.

The special PMLA court Judge Satyanarayan Navander, in its order, has observed that the accused cannot be prosecuted under the PMLA after being discharged in the predicate offence.

The court order said, "To prosecute the accused for the offence of money laundering under PMLA, the existence of a scheduled (predicate) offence is a must. Existence of predicate offence can only be established by proceeds of crime, of which layering or siphoning is possible."

"In the absence of a subsisting predicate offence and existence of 'proceeds of crime', within the meaning of Section 2(1)(u) of the Act, no offence under section 3 read with 4 of PMLA can be made out. The prosecution under PMLA without existence of the proceeds of crime related to the predicate offence is akin to a tree without roots, devoid of legal sustenance and incapable of surviving judicial scrutiny," the order added.

The court noted that the ED attached the properties which were allegedly acquired with the proceeds of crime of the predicate offence, but the Appellant Tribunal of SAFEMA has set aside all the provisional and confirmed attachment orders with the observation that those properties cannot be said to have been acquired using the proceeds of crime.

This leaves "no property is under attachment in the present case."

The special court said that "continuation of the PMLA proceedings for the offence under section 3 r/w 4 becomes a dead-wood."

NCP leader Bhujbal was accused of awarding contracts related to construction and development works, including one for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi, to a particular firm in return for kickbacks for himself and his family. (ANI)